This invention relates to continuous spinning machines and concerns a method and apparatus for replacing full bobbins on the spindles of a continuous spinning machine by empty tubes disposed on fixed pegs situated near the spindles.
Any continuous spinning machine, of course, comprises the following components:
(a) A vertical rotating spindle on which a cardboard or plastic tube is disposed, the yarn being wound thereon;
(b) A ring on which a traveller slides and which moves along the tube with a reciprocating motion to distribute the yarn turns over the entire tube length.
The yarn, which originates from doffing cylinders, enters the traveller and is wound on the tube.
When the tube is sufficiently covered with yarn the resulting bobbin has to be removed from the spindle, which is now stationary, and placed on a peg provided for the purpose, or in a skip truck. A tube can then be replaced on the spindle and another bobbin restarted.
Removal of the bobbin and the fitting of the tube were originally carried out manually.
Automatic devices then appeared in order to reduce handling times and heavy and repetitive work.
The object of this invention is basically to automate replacement of full bobbins by empty tubes on a machine having a given number of spindles.
The situation when the bobbins are completed is as follows:
(a) The full bobbin is situated vertically on the spindle;
(b) An empty tube is situated vertically on the replacement tube peg, the peg itself being some distance in front of the spindle and possibly slightly offset in relation thereto, and therefore in fact between the spindle in question and the next spindle.
In practice, the problem underlying the invention is to remove the full bobbin from the spindle, remove the empty tube from the peg, and change over the full bobbin and the empty tube so that the latter is placed on the spindle and the full bobbin on the peg.
Certain factors have to be taken into account, but they will not be detailed here, since the devices used to solve those difficulties do not form part of the invention.
For Example:
(a) The full bobbin is clamped on the spindle by deformation of the cardboard or plastic tube as a result of the tension with which the yarn is wound. The bobbin therefore has to be released and it will be assumed that it has been released;
(b) The yarn originating from the doffing cylinders and wound on the bobbin must be cut to allow the full bobbin to be removed and replaced by the empty tube. It will be assumed that the yarn has been cut.